Tony Mulcahy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. The matter I wish to raise is self-explanatory. I am seeking an update on the Shannon water treatment plant. Difficulties have arisen because the plant has reached maximum capacity. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that one local pharmaceutical company pumped large volumes of material into the river in recent years and that leachate seeped into it from a dump in the area. It is a matter for the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to indicate how it facilitated that. The biggest issue which arises in the context of Shannon is that, at present, it would not be possible for a prospective employer to set up operations there and, for example, create 200 jobs. This is because the water treatment plant has no additional capacity and planning permission could not be granted. In the past six or seven years, horrendous smells have wafted through the town at intervals. We want to find a permanent solution to this problem, which has been already been raised with the Minister elsewhere. I await his reply.